Brain disease, injury, or damage, as some nonlimiting examples, stroke and traumatic brain injury, often induces long term neurological deficits. Demyelination and remyelination are processes in which myelin sheaths are lost from around axons and later restored to demyelinated axons, respectively. These processes are involved in brain injury and in neurodegenerative diseases. Currently, there are no effective treatments available for improvement of neurological function after stroke, brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases.
Reduction of neurogenesis and loss of myelinating oligodendrocytes exacerbate neurological deficits. Diabetes affects an estimated 346 million people world-wide and the vast majority of diabetics have non-insulin-dependent type II diabetes. Peripheral neuropathy is one of the most common and disabling complications of diabetes mellitus. There is currently no effective treatment for preventing the development or reversing the progression of diabetic neuropathy.